Comment by amelius
17 days ago
Nobody wants ads (*) but somehow they are never banned.
Makes you wonder, are we living in a democracy or not?
(*) shown at inconvenient moments and tracking the user; yellow pages were fine
17 days ago
Nobody wants ads (*) but somehow they are never banned.
Makes you wonder, are we living in a democracy or not?
(*) shown at inconvenient moments and tracking the user; yellow pages were fine
If people not liking a thing is enough reason to ban it in a democracy, then how come we still pay tax?
And if you want to say "but someone must pay for the public services," the I have some bad news about what pays for your online content consumptions.
This thread already discussed that point. See the discussion if you're interested in why it is false.
I do not recall ever hearing of an organized effort to ban ads. These days, good luck getting bipartisan agreement, especially with all the dark money in politics being legalized and normalized.
That said... The modern internet is built off many free services paid for by people who buy stuff from ads. It is hard to imagine a world without ads - many sites and services would disappear. Hosting costs money.
I could see a dystopia without ads where a government provides free hosting for citizens. That quickly becomes "thought police" when an authoritarian leading head of state comes in. If we pretend like that will not happen, I think we would have a much more wonderful internet.
> It is hard to imagine a world without ads - many sites and services would disappear.
Don't you see the problem with that statement? Ads are profitable, and we are paying for them, indirectly, through buying products and services. Adtech takes a chunk of that profit. Therefore, we pay more than we should!
So you are paying more than you should for a loaf of bread because your local shop is making a profit? because if you went to the factory you could buy the same loaf for less? Of course you could make the bread yourself for even less because the factory is making a profit, and grow the wheat yourself for even less because the farmer is making a profit.
You are not 'paying more than you should'. Not least because there is no price you 'should' be paying. Further I'm not sure how you imagine this working? The retailer gets to decide prices or not? They get to decide if they advertise or not? The advertiser's have competition? The retailers? Retailers are presumably choosing to advertise because they think it's worth it, thus it is? You are free to choose to buy those products, that will feed into their decision whether and how to advertise.
9 replies →
> I do not recall ever hearing of an organized effort to ban ads.
See e.g. https://ballotpedia.org/Alaska_Measure_5,_Prohibit_Billboard...
> It is hard to imagine a world without ads - many sites and services would disappear.
It is hard to imagine a world without horses & carts; many businesses would disappear.
Horses and carts didn't need to be banned to become obsolete.
My town banned billboards entirely. It's been a resounding success.
I don't care. It was better before there were ads. It will be better after there are ads. Most actual useful content isn't monetised, and most monetised content is slop. There is a spectrum between the two endpoints, of course.